We are pleased to share with you three new training guides on empathy building. Empathy - the ability to understand another person’s emotions - is considered one of the crucial skills in any work space. As one of the intended program outcomes, building empathy is of great value to students, especially those in the Bonner Program or others who collaborate with diverse individuals and populations.
Each guide includes interactive exercises involving active listening techniques, authentic dialogue, perspective-taking, and organic conversations to help participants practice empathy building. The guides also integrate the arts as a medium to express and understand ideas and experiences.
The training guides are well designed for use in all group meetings in the Bonner Program, during cornerstone activities, as well as in campus-wide service and DEI contexts. The activities may be helpful for instilling the Bonner Common Commitments of Diversity and Community-Building as well. They are easy to implement, including by student leaders in the Bonner Leadership Team (BLT), staff, and faculty. Depending on the time available for the meeting, facilitators may use the entire series in a retreat format or select specific activities for a meeting.
The first training guide Facilitating Empathetic Conversation and Active Listening: Using Images to Express and Understand Ideas, Experiences, and Emotions engages participants in meaning-making and reflective discussion around empathy. Participants choose from a range of carefully chosen photographs, and express how a specific photo represents their interpretation of empathy. Participants learn to practice non-judgement and active listening during the process. With a range of creative visuals, the session itself is fun.
The second training guide Perspective-Taking and Perspective-Getting: Different Methods of Building Empathy creates opportunities for participants to practice perspective-taking and perspective-getting in order to gain a better understanding of what empathy is and how it may be enacted. Participants engage in three different scaffolded exercises to learn about and build empathy for a stranger. They analyze the effectiveness and appropriateness of each method in a given context and reflect on their experiences together and individually.
The third training guide Building Empathy for Older People: Perspective-Taking and Perspective Getting with Older Adults helps participants practice perspective-taking and perspective-getting with older adults in order to build empathy. This is a comprehensive guide with two sessions. Each session is 60-65 minutes long. The first session includes guided discussion based on two documentaries about aging. The second session encourages participants to have an organic conversation with a person of a different age group. Participants use arts and crafts materials to express an idea or a story that stood out to them and end the session with reflection about their experience.
The training guides were developed by Naomi M. Wong with guidance from The Bonner Foundation staff. Naomi is studying for her Master of Divinity. She is also a poet and a novelist. She served as Princeton Seminary Field Education Intern to the Bonner Foundation past semester and invested a great amount of time and effort in researching best resources to develop the guides. The Bonner Foundation is grateful for Naomi’s talent, time, and contributions.
The training guides are available on Bonner Wiki under "Education and Reflection” section. Use this link to download the guides. Email Rachayita Shah at rshah@bonner.org if you face any issues or have questions.